The Organization of American States (OAS) called for elections in Haiti as soon as possible and opened the way for an investigation into the ousting of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Over the objections of the US and Haiti's new government, the OAS General Assembly approved a resolution on Tuesday night noting Aristide's removal was unconstitutional and allowing an assessment of what occurred.
Aristide accuses the US of forcing him from office -- a charge Washington denies. A US-supplied jet flew Aristide to the Central African Republic on Feb. 29 as rebels advanced on the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, and he is now in asylum in South Africa after spending several weeks in Jamaica.
The ministers agreed to channel their efforts on Haiti through the OAS Permanent Council in Washington. They committed their nations to undertaking "all the diplomatic initiatives necessary" to promote democracy in Haiti.
In a resolution, the foreign ministers urged "the transitional government in Haiti to create conditions conducive to the holding of free, fair and democratic elections in Haiti as soon as possible."
After Aristide's removal, multinational forces entered the country to re-establish order under the authority of the UN Security Council.
Foreign ministers from around the Americas also declared war on the deeply ingrained corruption in the region at the end of a two-day meeting in Quito.
corruption
US Secretary of State Colin Powell urged nations to "advance democratic governance and economic growth in this region" by fighting corruption.
A document signed by 34 foreign ministers or heads of delegations states, "corruption has a serious impact on public and private institutions, weakens economic growth and impinges upon the needs and fundamental interests of a country's most vulnerable social groups."
The foreign ministers pledged they would keep corrupt officials from entering their countries and agreed to cooperate in recovering stolen funds.
But the general assembly rejected a Peruvian proposal calling for countries to extradite officials accused of corruption. The Peruvian government had hoped the measure would allow it to extradite former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori from Japan.
Mexico, which has a long history of providing refugee to officials who say they are fleeing political persecution, opposed Peru's proposal.
The US was also unsuccessful in persuading other nations to agree to impose sanctions on corrupt governments.
"Governments are not corrupt," Peruvian Foreign Minister Manuel Rodriguez said during a break in the debate. "Members of a given government are corrupt."
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
It turns out that looming collision between our Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies might not happen after all. Astronomers on Monday said that the probability of the two spiral galaxies colliding is less than previously thought, with a 50-50 chance within the next 10 billion years. That is essentially a coin flip, but still better odds than previous estimates and farther out in time. “As it stands, proclamations of the impending demise of our galaxy seem greatly exaggerated,” the Finnish-led team wrote in a study appearing in Nature Astronomy. While good news for the Milky Way galaxy, the latest forecast might be moot
RSS